Cellular communications systems typically provide interconnect and/or dispatch voice communication services. Interconnect voice communication services are those typically provided by most cellular carriers as circuit-switched communications. Dispatch communication services are commonly known as a “walkie-talkie” type of call, such as provided by Nextel Communications, Inc. and identified by the trade names Push-To-Talk (PTT) or Direct Connect. The popularity of dispatch calls is ever expanding and this increase in popularity has created a demand for these types of calls.
Currently, dispatch communication services can typically provide private and multi-party calls. A private dispatch call is between two parties, while a multi-party dispatch call, which can be either a group call or a chatroom call, as will be further explained later in this specification, is between more than two parties, each of whom can converse with each of the other participants during the call. Multi-party calls are becoming increasingly popular because they allow a subscriber to converse with numerous other subscribers in the same session. This provides particular utility in both business applications and for social communications. However, there are aspects in the way dispatch multi-party calls are handled by the dispatch service provider network that does not provide for efficient utilization of resources within the network.
Currently, due to various limitations, most multi-party dispatch calls are only able to be conducted between a few participants, e.g., four or five people. One of these limitations, for example, is the narrowband RF interface into the service provider network for the potential participants. Because bandwidth is limited, it has been possible for only a relatively limited number of participants to participate in multi-party dispatch calls. Due to the limited participation in these currently conducted multi-party sessions, the issue of efficiently utilizing network resources to support these multi-party calls has not been a significant concern for service provider networks. However, multi-party dispatch calls do present unique issues for a dispatch network service provider in efficiently utilizing network resources. These issues will only become more challenging for service providers as the number of potential participants in these calls ever increases.
Currently, as discussed above, dispatch multi-party calls are generally conducted between a small number of participants. In assigning network resources to support these calls, currently, the service provider dedicates enough resources to support the projected number of participants in the call. Therefore, if the network has a requirement to support a multi-party dispatch call with four participants, the network dedicates sufficient resources to support a call between all four projected participants in the call. However, in the large majority of multi-party calls that are conducted, the number of actual participants in the call is less than the projected number of participants. Therefore, in this situation where the actual participation is less than the projected participation, because network resources are dedicated to support the call at the projected level of participation, an inefficient use of network resources results. Currently, even if the actual participation is less than the projected participation, network resources are dedicated based on the projected participation in order to ensure adequate resources are available; even if this results in inefficiencies for the network.
However, today, even if network inefficiency is inherent in dedicating service provider media resources to support multi-party calls, the impact of this inefficiency may not be significant. For example, since multi-party calls are generally only conducted between a small number of participants, e.g., four people, if the network dedicates resources for all four projected participants and only three actually participate, this inefficient use of resources is most-likely not too detrimental to the network. Whereas only 75% of the dedicated resources were actually required, the inefficiency for this small multi-party call results in the network dedicating resources for only one more person than what was required. Generally, an inefficient dedication of network resources related to one or two, or even more, subscribers is not an issue of paramount concern to the service provider.
However, as discussed above, as the projected participation in multi-party dispatch calls increases in the future, inefficient dedication of network resources to support these larger calls can have significant impact on a service provider. The number of participants in multi-party dispatch calls is expected to increase due to a number of factors, including the ever-increasing popularity of these calls, the availability of broadband access to the network, and the variety of options available for formats for conducting these types of calls, e.g., group calls, public chatrooms, and ad-hoc chatrooms. As can be understood, if a network is required to dedicate resources to support a multi-party call that is projected to have 400 participants, a significant amount of network resources will be dedicated to the call, and thus, unavailable for supporting other subscribers. If all 400 people participate, whereas a large amount of network resources would be required, the network would efficiently utilize all of the dedicated resources in supporting the call. However, in this circumstance of a projected large multi-party call, if only 75% of the projected participants actually participate, a significant amount of dedicated network resources will go unused, even though dedicated. Thus, the network resources that are dedicated to support the remaining 25% of the projected participants that do not actually participate, i.e., 100 people, are not available to support other subscribers. Therefore, in this circumstance where network resources are dedicated to support a large multi-party call and where not all of the projected participants actually participate, a significant amount of network resources are inefficiently dedicated. As discussed above, as multi-party dispatch calls become more and more popular in the future, there is a need to provide a more efficient way of allocating network resources to support these calls.
One alternative, of course, is to merely increase the amount of network resources available in the service provider network. However, this alternative is not desirable for at least the reason that it may be a prohibitively expensive solution for the service provider. Additionally, simply increasing the amount of network resources available does not improve the efficiency with which these resources are utilized.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved system and method for efficiently utilizing service provider network resources for supporting multi-party dispatch calls.